Europe 1 with AFP 10:49 am, December 23, 2021

Citing a clinical study, the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Thursday that a third dose of its vaccine against Covid-19 "significantly" increases the level of antibodies against the Omicron variant.

In addition, its preventive cocktail Evusheld would also be effective against Omicron.

Pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Thursday that a third dose of its Covid-19 vaccine "significantly" increases the level of antibodies against the Omicron variant, citing a clinical study.

The Anglo-Swedish giant announces at the same time in a separate press release that its cocktail of long-acting antibodies Evusheld for the prevention of Covid "keeps its neutralizing activity against the Omicron variant, according to a study by the University of Oxford and from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA.

Similar antibody levels as for Delta

"The levels of neutralizing antibodies Omicron after a third dose of Vaxzevria", its anti-Covid vaccine, "were broadly similar to the levels reached after two doses against the Delta variant", details the press release. "The levels seen after a third dose were higher than the antibodies found in individuals who had previously been infected and recovered naturally" from the alpha, beta, delta and original strain variants of covid-19, says AstraZeneca .

The third dose study was conducted "independently" by researchers at the University of Oxford, with whom AstraZeneca designed its vaccine.

"It is very encouraging to see that the current vaccines have the potential to protect against Omicron after a third booster dose" commented John Bell, one of the researchers at the University of Oxford who conducted the study.

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Several recent studies, carried out in the laboratory, show that the antibody level collapses against Omicron in people vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and even more AstraZeneca or the Chinese vaccine Sinovac. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna also recently announced that a booster dose appears to significantly boost antibody immunity, but data is lacking on how long this protection lasts.

The WHO boss warned on Wednesday against the illusion that it would be enough to administer booster doses to get out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"No country will be able to get out of the pandemic with booster shots and the reminders are not a green light to celebrate as planned," said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization. health.